About Arthur Kleinman
Born 1941. Arthur Kleinman is an American psychiatrist, anthropologist and university teacher.
Arthur Michael Kleinman (born March 11, 1941) is an American psychiatrist, social anthropologist and a professor of medical anthropology, psychiatry and global health and social medicine at Harvard University.
Kleinman's medical anthropology research has largely focused on China. He began his work in Taiwan in 1968, and then expanded to mainland China in 1978.
At Harvard, Kleinman has taught at all levels for decades. These efforts include teaching, supervision and mentorship of undergraduate students, anthropology graduate students, medical students, and post-doctoral fellows.
Education Arthur Kleinman received his A.B. and M.D. from Stanford University and M.A. in Social Anthropology from Harvard. He did an internship in internal medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and his psychiatric residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Career Kleinman is the Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology at Harvard and professor of medical anthropology and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Kleinman has held a variety of administrative positions, including chair of Harvard's Department of Anthropology, chair of Harvard Medical School's Department of Social Medicine, and director of Harvard's Asia Center (2008–2016).
In 2011, Kleinman was named a Harvard College Professor and given the Distinguished Faculty Award.
In 1976, he founded the journal Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, The journal was continued by Byron and Mary-Jo Good and Peter J. Guarnaccia. Most recently, he was elected Honorary Academician, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
Personal life Kleinman was born and raised in New York. He was married to the late Joan Kleinman (who died in 2011), a sinologist and his research collaborator, for 45 years. They have two children (Peter and Anne) and four grandchildren (Gabriel, Kendall, Allegra and Clayton).
Selected list of published works Patients and healers in the context of culture : an exploration of the borderland between anthropology, medicine, and psychiatry / Arthur Kleinman. -- University of California Press, 1980. Culture and depression : studies in the anthropology and cross-cultura l psychiatry of affect and disorder / edited by Arthur Kleinman and Byron Good. -- University of California Press, 1985. -- Social origins of distress and disease : depression, neurasthenia, and pain in modern China / Kleinman—Yale University Press, 1986 The illness narratives: suffering, healing, and the human condition / Kleinman—Basic Books, 1988 Rethinking psychiatry : from cultural category to personal experience / Kleinman; Free Press, 1991 Social suffering / edited by Kleinman, Veena Das, and Margaret Lock—University of California Press, 1997 & Oxford University Press, 1997 Writing at the margin : discourse between anthropology and medicine / Kleinman. -- University of California Press, 1995 What really matters: living a moral life amidst uncertainty and danger / Kleinman—Oxford University Press, 2006. Translated into Chinese: Shanghai Joint Publishing Company, Shanghai, P.R. China, 2007; translated in Chinese: PsyGarden Publishing Company, Taiwan, 2007 The soul of care: the moral education of a husband and a doctor / Kleinman— Penguin, description and arrow-searchable preview, 2019
Don’t just read it —
keep it.
Full-length biographies made to live with: read them, listen on the way to work, watch them tonight.
- E-book
- Audio
- Video
Instant download · yours to keep · every purchase keeps this site free
Important facts
People in Arthur Kleinman's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Arthur Kleinman's
Frequently asked questions
Who is Arthur Kleinman?
American psychiatrist
When was Arthur Kleinman born?
Arthur Kleinman was born on 1 March 1941 in New York City.
What is Arthur Kleinman's occupation?
Arthur Kleinman is a psychiatrist, anthropologist and university teacher.
What nationality is Arthur Kleinman?
Arthur Kleinman is American.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Arthur Kleinman. https://biography.guide/arthur-kleinman/
MLA: "Arthur Kleinman." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/arthur-kleinman/.
Chicago: "Arthur Kleinman." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/arthur-kleinman/.
Data last updated: 2026-09-20 · Spot an error? Report a correction.
Page generated 2026-09-27 05:30 UTC